New tensions are emerging between the government and its think tank, with the food ministry making major changes to a National Advisory Council (NAC) draft of a new law slated to become the blockbuster social-security scheme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s troubled second tenure. Key provisions of the national food security Bill, 2011, due to be introduced in Parliament’s next session starting 2 August, and estimated to cost the...
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Posco’s Karnataka steel plant plans in doldrums
BangaloreThe fate of South Korean steelmaker Posco's proposed plant in Karnataka remains uncertain with two groups of farmers holding different views on the project. The government has already assured protesting farmers that the project would not come up in Gadag district. However, it is also waiting to see if the issue can be resolved as a separate group of farmers is offering land for the plant. Karnataka industries minister Murugesh Nirani, who will meet...
More »Agri ministry: Cease NREGA during key farming periods
The ministry of agriculture has written to the ministry of rural development asking them to suspend Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) projects during peak farming seasons because of labour unavailability. The ministry of rural development headed by Jairam Ramesh has still to take a decision on this matter. The secretary of agriculture P.K. Basu in his letter has rung the alarm bells by pointing out that the ministry’s assessment...
More »Lady of the house now head of the family by Vandita Mishra
On Monday, the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, cleared a version of the food security Bill that accepts several provisions recommended by the Sonia Gandhi headed-National Advisory Council (NAC) and rejects some others. Predictably, public attention has concentrated on the latter. Unnoticed among the NAC recommendations that have been accepted by the government, therefore, lies a radical new proposal that has the potential to re-arrange...
More »The plunder economy by Ashok Mitra
One lives to learn — or unlearn. The working head of what passes for this country’s Planning Commission is unambiguous about it. One important measure to fight inflation, he believes, is to raise prices. That is to say, to stop prices from rising, you must first raise prices. The gentleman has heartily endorsed the recent serial increases in the prices of petroleum products since such increases will, in his view,...
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